A 92-year-old Torrance resident’s privately funded Independence Day fireworks display off the municipal beach will go on, despite a belated effort by the city to extract almost $20,000 from her to pay for fire and police costs associated with the event.

It’s the 13th year Jackie Briles has held the 9 p.m. Fourth of July fireworks display from a barge moored offshore. This year, the plans are to shoot off $60,000 worth of fireworks in 15 minutes.

The event has soared in popularity since the city discontinued its Wilson Park fireworks display in 2011 to save at least $115,000, part of a larger $8.9 million package of budget cuts.

But this is the first year the city asked Briles to pay a portion of the public safety costs.

“We’re trying to get them to pay for what we believe is a reasonable portion of their responsibility,” Torrance police spokeswoman Jennifer Uyeda said. “They are refusing to even look at our proposal. They are simply refusing to pay any fee.”

City officials had little leverage over the Briles.

The U.S. Coast Guard had already signed off on evaluating the seaworthiness of the vessel used as a fireworks staging post. And the county Fire Department had awarded Briles a permit before municipal officials belatedly held their hands out for money.

“If she goes ahead with the show without an agreement with the police, she would be in violation of the permit and could be charged,” Uyeda said.

City officials figured her share of the $33,605.90 in overall costs for public safety at Torrance Beach amounted to $19,457.70, although no one could provide the Daily Breeze with a breakdown of just how officials arrived at that figure.

In any case, despite the tough talk, Briles balked and city officials backed off.

“We had some discussions with the Briles, but we did not reach an agreement on shared costs this year,” said Brian Sunshine, assistant to the city manager. “Both sides decided that in this point in time we’ll look to next year.”

Whether there will be a fireworks display next year is unclear.

Briles, whose family owns PB Fastners Inc. in Gardena, held the initial fireworks show in 2001 to mark her son’s birthday. This year, she said, he won’t attend the show anyway and next year’s is up in the air — or not.

“It will depend on whether we pay (public safety costs) for it or not,” she said.

Police officials say those costs are considerable.

Last year patrolling officers broke up fights, dealt with heavy traffic and parking issues and issued citations for the illegal consumption of alcohol and the setting off of fireworks on the beach, said police Sgt. Chris Roosen of community affairs.

He said police and fire personnel are no longer at full deployment since the fireworks display at Wilson Park was discontinued. It’s that vacuum that has caused problems both from a crowd and public safety overtime perspective.

“Now that (the fireworks show at) Wilson Park is no longer there, we are seeing an influx of people going toward Torrance Beach to watch the fireworks show, which was not the case before,” he said. “And because of that, over the last three years there has been an increase of incidents and quality-of-life issues because of the fireworks show that requires extra staffing.”

Jon Olson, who lives just south of Wilson Park, is among those who now trek to the beach on Independence Day.

It’s not only possible to see Briles’ show, but Redondo Beach’s, which occurs at the nearby pier at the same time, too. In fact, Olson said he counted eight coastal fireworks shows stretching all the way to Malibu.

And he sees the city’s cost of policing the Torrance event as a small price to pay.

“Formerly, I was able to sit in my back yard and watched the fireworks right in front of me,” he said. “The last couple of years I’ve come to the beach.

“When Torrance sponsored the fireworks, they also had to pay the police, I suppose. That amounts to about a nickle a Torrance resident or something.”

Nick Green is the longtime soccer columnist for the Southern California Newspaper Group and covers Torrance, Lomita and the craft beer industry for the Daily Breeze. He also blogs about soccer at www.insidesocal.com/soccer, the local craft beer scene at www.insidesocal.com/beer and the South Bay at blogs.dailybreeze.com/southbay/. The native of England lives in Old Torrance with his wife and two cats.

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